Will Richardson

Speaker, consultant, writer, learner, parent

Mogopopp-ed

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So it’s been a few days of silly little coincidences, like the two people who within about 10 minutes of each other contacted me from very disparate parts of the globe to tell me about Mogopop. Like, whoa!

Somebody, somewhere was writing about not having much patience for new tools that they can’t figure out in like 10 nanoseconds since there is so much other stuff to try out there. I’m more and more finding myself without patience for tools that aren’t extremely easy and intuitive, no matter what they claim to offer. But this little Mogopop thing has me hooked. Basically, if you’ve ever wanted to deliver a course via an iPod (or, perhaps someday, a phone? Maybe?) then Mogopop is the tool of the moment.

Now I know this first attempt isn’t anything stellar, but seriously, in about seven minutes I put together this little aggregation of photo, video and text that you can now download to your video iPod (and, perhaps someday, your phone? Maybe?) and get a quick idea of what, um, my daughter looks like, the Wikipedia definition of Web 2.0 (needs some formatting) and a short clip of some kids at a workshop I did in the U.K. I know, I know…not much that’s useful there…except the concept.

So imagine if you will, a whole slew of quality content like this that learners can access and port with them, or better, learners putting together resources that can be shared with the community to further their thinking and discussion, or perhaps portfolios of work, or maybe personalized reflections in audio, video, text form, or… All deliverable to your iPod (or, perhaps someday…) What else?

And wow, already three other people have downloaded my project! Web goodness! (I know…I need to get a life…)

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Manila as Learning Object Repository (Con't)

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Dan Mitchell extends yesterday’s post on Manila’ LOR capabilities even more:

Since the links can be embedded in other pages on the weblog site it is an easy matter to create a page describing the gem that includes a link. (Or, as hard-core Manila users know, a News Item may serve even better.) Now you have a searchable page containing a description of the resource with a built-in link to the original gem.

It gets even better. Frontier/Manila server operators can add plug-in tools that provide extra features to those who create and maintain sites. One such tool is the Metadata plugin, which puts full metadata fields on the page where one creates new Manila stories – making it a relatively easy matter to add metadata to the page wrapping the resource… if you are into such things.

[Update] I failed to mention the RSS piece of this when I first posted this message. The RSS feature can automatically publicize the fact that the new object has been created an made available. Those subscribing to a site’s RSS feed will get the descriptive text for the resources with a link back to the original.

Weblog tools can provide the following:

  • Learning objects (by the way, I don’t like that term!) can easily be uploaded.
  • They can easily be incorporated into web pages on the weblog site, either by embedding or by linking to the original object.
  • The page containing the link or embedded object can contain descriptive material concerning the object.
  • Plugins allow additional features such as easy inclusion of metadata.
  • The page and the metadata are searchable.
  • RSS can provide notification when a new object is posted.

    • The more you dig into it, the more powerful Manila seems…